Middle-class bombers find DIY 'martyr belt' online

They aren't poor and can learn their deadly trade on the web, says Hala Jaber

For several months Islamic websites have carried a chilling 26-minute video containing a detailed do-it-yourself guide for would-be suicide bombers wanting to cause maximum death and carnage.

Entitled The Explosive Belt for Martyrdom Operations, the step-by-step video shows the making of a tough-to-detect explosive belt using common materials.

The film — access to which has now been blocked — is among a vast range of military manuals, showing how to make everything from ordinary bombs and explosives to chemical weapons, disseminated by Islamic websites that refer to this month’s bus and tube bombings as “the blessed London attacks”.

While the existence of such sites explains how the bombers acquired the expertise to kill themselves and fellow passengers, they go little way to answering the more fundamental question of what drove the four British-born men to carry out the attacks — provided, that is, they knew theirs was a suicide mission.